Mikaela Mayer will be making the third defense of her junior lightweight title against Jennifer Han on Saturday.
Mikaela Mayer (16-0, 5 KOs) vs. Jennifer Han (18-4-1, 1 KOs)
- Date: Saturday, April 9
- Time: 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT
- Where: The Hangar, Costa Mesa, California
- TV/Stream: ESPN, ESPN+
- Division: Junior lightweight
- Rounds: 10 (two-minute rounds)
- At stake: Mayer’s IBF and WBO titles
- Pound-for-pound ranking: None
- Odds: Mayer 3½-1 favorite
- Also on the card: Giovani Santillan vs. Jeovanis Barraza, welterweights; Jason Maloney vs. Francisco Pedroza, bantamweights; Andrew Moloney vs. Gilberto Mendoza, junior bantamweights
- Prediction: Mayer UD
- Background: Mayer, a 2016 U.S. Olympian, has established herself as one of the top female fighters in the world. She won the vacant WBO title by nearly shutting out Ewa Brodnicka in October 2020, successfully defended it by outpointing Erica Farias eight months later and then adding the IBF belt to her collection by decisioning Maiva Hamadouche in a taxing brawl this past November. If Mayer beats Han, she’ll have in her sights the winner of a tentative bout between fellow titleholders Terri Harper (WBC) and Hyun Mi Choi (WBA) for all-four major belts. Mayer is also a candidate to face the winner of the April 30 showdown between lightweight titleholder Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. Han is coming off a shutout loss to Taylor in September, her first setback since 2014. The 38-year-old Texan had been fighting at 126 before moving up to 135 for her last two fights. She’ll now move back down to 130, a weight at which she fought early in her career.
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